Conventionally, data and information is provided for processing in one of a number of standardized formats. For example, industries develop standardized formats for use within the industry, such as data formats for inventorying material. One such technology utilizes radio frequency tags affixed to inventoried material, devices, animals or other items, and is commonly referred to as Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) technology.
RFID technology utilizes RFID tags, which are electronic memory devices to which data representing information may be written to and/or read from by an RFID interrogator. The tag may be affixed to or otherwise associated with a particular tagged component, including an item, animal, assembly, device, or product, to store information on the tag relating to that tagged component. The RFID tag may include a memory chip and a radio signal receiving and transmitting device, both encapsulated together and forming a transponder. The transponder may be housed within a plastic or otherwise protective housing and is affixed to the tagged component.
RFID tags have data stored thereon in a standardized data format wherein the format and content of such data is structured in accordance with the standardized data format. The standardized data format is typically common to a particular industry or group. Thus, RFID tags for use within such group or industry utilize a standardized tag data format, common to all users within that group, including storage on the tag for only pre-determined data fields, each having a pre-set field size and location. There are many such standardized formats and each requires a RFID tag interrogator programmed to encode and decode such standardized format in order to communicate with the RFID tags.
The RFID interrogator communicates with the RFID tags and includes a radio signal sending and receiving device and a recorder for storing transmitted data. The RFID interrogator may also include a processor for reformatting or otherwise processing the transmitted data. The RFID interrogator may be a single component, such as a hand-held transceiver device, or may include multiple components, including, for example, a computer or other storage and/or processing component to handle data storage, processing, and transmission between the transceiver and the processor.
Such practices work well in certain industries, wherein the standardized format may successfully accommodate the data formatting needs for that particular industry, however, such formats are not applicable to other industries or groups. Therefore, such systems, such as RFID systems, are inefficient or impose undesirable limitations in an industry where no particular standardized data format may serve all data storage and retrieval needs for a particular industry. In addition, such systems are not usable across different groups or industries where different information may be presented in accordance with various standards.
Thus, what is needed is a method and apparatus for accepting and processing standardized data, such as RFID tag data, regardless of the format thereof. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the invention and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the invention.